Real Deal

Congrats on your win against the Pistons.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20110323_UTA@OKC

You'd love some of the quotes I've already found of yours where you probably should've kept that in mind before bashing a role player in the past.

Those were all after Smush's comments to him. Kobe never said anything before that (while they were on the same team together, or after Smush took off his Lakers jersey and pre-jab at Kobe). Kobe is like Phil Jackson. Smush targeted Bryant, and now Kobe has turned him into a quick and easy joke. Players will tend to do that when someone else runs their mouth about them. Did you ever watch Shaq back when the Kings were our rivals? Jordan laughed at Bryon Russell and mocked him when Russell stated that Jordan pushed off him, so Russell has been talking Mike for years now, wanting to play him, saying he can lock him up (and all MJ had to do was say that he didn't push off, not try and degrade Russell...right?), but that's how it ends up because certain guys just don't like each other. Did you ever read some of the things Raja Bell said about Kobe, and how Kobe responded? It's not a big deal. For one, it's Smush Parker. Post a topic when Kobe says something degrading about a significant star that he sees on the court.

Howard's team does have the 8th best record in the NBA. I'm not sure what the problem is with that particular statement. Spurs, Lakers, Bulls, Mavs, Heat, Celtics and Thunder all have better records.

Wait...so the real reason is Melo's scoring (or lack of efficiency)? I don't buy that. New York has no defense, they have no depth, and they have no size. In fact, if we're talking efficiency, the Chicago Bulls shoot nearly the exact same percentage as the Knicks, but it's their defense that clears the way for the top seed in the East. Chicago is also a top five rebounding team in the NBA, and the Knicks struggle to board. If we're looking at offense, they need to stop shooting threes. Every single time I tune in, they are launching from 25 feet out, and it has been that way all season long. It does make sense, though, because Amare isn't a back-to-the-basket post, and they don't have the facilitator to create shots for anyone (not sure why people thought Melo facilitated).

Only Kobe and Fish deserve to take that shot, sorry. Just another example of why it's usually them shooting it.

Continue? I don't remember him saying anything before this. And you ask that question, yet we've already answered it. He said it as a joke, because most everyone views Smush as a joke. This isn't Jordan talking trash on his high school teammate decades later, for no reason. I actually think my previous post said it best anyway. It's clear as day where this was going from the start.

Well, I doubt you can give me one player that Rose can't take off the dribble. If there was no help defense in the NBA, there would be at least 15 players averaging 30 PPG. Not even guys like Pippen and Payton could handle the fastest scoring guards in the NBA all by themselves. Don't worry, I actually watch the games as well. I get every single Bulls game locally, on WGN. If Rose could drive to the rim every single time, every game, he would...and basketball would be far easier...but unfortunately, it's not NBA 2k10. That's not taking anything away from Rose, at all, because it's the same with every player in the NBA.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201103020ATL.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201103110CHI.html Both games this year, Rose has struggled, and on WGN, they had Rose talking about how great of a defensive player Hinrich was when Rose was sitting in the locker room right after the game. I figured it was pretty obvious just by those two games. Can't say a single player can lock Rose up every single game, though.

Funny thing is, we have yet to actually trash LeBron for making a comment towards a former teammate, so you really don't know if we would or not. However, you guys are doing what you say WE would do, which is pretty funny, to say the least. *insert Mutombo elbow here*

Darrell Arthur! And Haddadi looked like a pro out there. Credit goes to Utah's amazing defense.

Dwight and Bass went 18-21 shooting. Hickson, Samuels, Hollins and Harangody are the bigs for Cleveland. Just thought I would stick this out there, for a few laughs. I'm sure CLE fans can't wait to see Varejao back on the court next season.

Kobe spent hours in practice trying to teach Smush how to play defense and how to make a post entry pass...says both Smush (when he was a Laker) and Phil. Doesn't matter. I could care less what the media does to LeBron James. They've been riding his jock for years. Everyone is making a big deal about the media NOW? The same damn Heat fans were pissed when the Cavaliers were all over the television, acting like fools, and that included James...and now, James is the victim? This is truly pathetic. People are quick to judge Kobe any other time, except for when he's showing off his five rings and dropping 50 on their teams...so quick that they ignore things like Smush's previous comments (or, it doesn't make the news because, quite frankly, nobody cares about Smush until Kobe barely says something bad about him). Same shit every year, lol. We just deal with this kind of stuff much, much differently.

"If Rose isn't the MVP, I'd love to see a highlight of the guy that's gonna be." - Scott Van Pelt Haha...beast. It's the third SportsCenter analyst that has said something like that over the last six days.

He actually apologized for what he said about Drew, but guess what? Even Mitch admitted that he was shopping Drew for a few years (just admitted it the other day), and Phil Jackson has trashed Drew in interviews over and over again, along with Ron Artest. Of course, bringing up Drew is the strike after a nasty gutterball of an attempt to call out Bryant for retaliating. I find it funny that anyone is defending Smush, a former player for multiple reasons. I don't hear a damn person speak bad about what Michael did to Kwame. The best part about all of this is that the reason for actually dropping by and commenting in here is because, apparently, everyone would be all over LBJ if he did something like this. However, if Mo Williams were to take a jab at James first, I would expect LeBron to say something about him, instead of being a coward and acting like it's okay. But, as always, it's no big deal. Just depends on what members are actually trashing Kobe. I won't put much more effort into this particular topic...lol.

Amare has yet to prove he is an underrated defensive player. Players have been eating him alive. That one block on LeBron was nice, but everyone on the court knew James was taking it to the rim, and Amare was coming in for that block, not defending James on his way to the rim. The Knicks' problem will be the same as that of the Suns, and the old Kings and Mavs: if they aren't lighting it up on the offensive end, they won't be able to provide any defense to win the game.

He's giving it right back to Smush. Parker has trashed Kobe two times in past interviews, but nobody cares and thinks they know everything.

He's averaging just 4.8 FTA/G since the all-star break, despite him driving to the rim more. The 6.7 he's averaging right now is his lowest in over a decade. Last night was terrible.

Haha, yep...picture from last night: http://i56.tinypic.com/mwpt85.jpg And how pissed he was... http://i.imgur.com/HZJ0K.gif

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6227393 Go to 0:55 and listen. Brown talks about how Bryant asked him to hit his arm in practices, so he can shoot jumpers through the fouls because referees weren't calling them. That's pretty crazy.

The only way I could ever see the Knicks making a series out of it is if LeBron and Wade fall back on their individual performances at MSG, and forget what it takes to win games. If you combine that with Melo and Amare going off, I could see a six or seven-game series...but that is a stretch. I really, really doubt it goes past five. The Knicks are just a bundle of mess right now. If D'Antoni would pull them together and work more on their defensive lapses (which seems impossible with him), they can be a pretty damn good playoff team and a tough out (much like Phoenix was, despite them having their defensive struggles), but I just don't know.

So, basically, my posts were dodged because there's absolutely nothing to debate. Good thinking. Don't compare anyone on OTR to a 12-year old girl that is obsessed with a player's face. That 12-year old girl, more than likely, doesn't know a single thing about basketball, and if that player were to have 20-win seasons throughout his career, she wouldn't care. Translation: [expletive] off if you don't like "player fans." That's what needs to be said. I'm a fan of the game of basketball. If the Lakers disappeared tomorrow, I'm still watching 29 other teams (like I do today), unlike many around here. I watch the sport before anything else, including the Lakers, including Kobe. Nothing insecure about my fanhood, at all. The insecurity lies within those who continue to pounce on everyone who is not born in an NBA city, or who didn't have their daddies telling them what team they should support as they grew up. It has been that way on OTR since the entire community started growing comfortable with each other, and it's pretty much garbage, and displays the lack of maturity. And the mediocrity of other teams doesn't mean shit. The Lakers were mediocre one season, in 2004-05, and we heard it worse than any team to date. The two first-round exits against the Suns were more painful than any 20-30 win season a team could have because our fanbase was stomped on by the media. Does anyone really care what the 30-win teams do in the NBA? Has ESPN written a famous article about how bad the Pistons are this season? Cool, say some guy is from Detroit and he has been a Pistons fan for decades, and that he's still a fan even today. I don't care. There's a chance I know more about that Pistons team (or any team in the franchise's history) than he does, and that knowledge is all that matters to me. Unlike many of those die-hard fans (and not all die-hard fans are like that), I don't drool over the team I support. I don't call Von Wafer the next Ray Allen, or say that Vujacic is going to be as good as Peja was. Not being "the norm" and being able to say that I actually chose the team I wanted to support (even before they had Shaq, by the way) is refreshing. If that pisses anyone off, maybe you need to re-evaluate your stance on the subject, because you're in the wrong, and you always have been. Go ahead and ramble on about whatever makes you feel a little better about your fanhood. At the end of the day, you being a fan takes more than just talking about it, and there are a couple of guys around here that haven't walked the walk and really have no reason to ever question anyone else.

So the 12-year old girl is obsessed with, say, Shannon Brown...all because she wants to model her game after him? Or because she wants him to lead a team to a championship? Or, are you saying that "player fans" are obsessed with someone like LeBron because they think he's cute?